Jesse Johnson Finley

Background

Jesse Finley was born on November 18, 1812, in Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of the planter Obediah Gaines Finley and his wife Mary Lewis Johnson.

Education

Finley attended Campbell Academy, read law in Nashville, and began his law practice in Lebanon.

Career

Finley was a captain in the Seminole War in 1836. He represented Wilson County in the Tennessee Senate in 1837. In 1840, he moved to Mississippi County, Arkansas, and the following year he was elected to the Arkansas Senate from Little Rock.

He subsequently moved to Memphis, where he practiced law and was elected mayor in 1845. In November 1846, he moved to Marianna, Florida, and from 1850 to 1854, he served as a Whig in the Florida Senate. Finley, who advocated the popular election of judges, also served as a judge for the Western Circuit of Florida from 1853 to 1861.

At the beginning of the Civil War, he was made judge for the Confederate court of the Florida District. He resigned this post in March 1862 to enter the Confederate Army as a private. Later a colonel in the 6th Florida Regiment, he served under General Edmund-Kirby Smith in east Tennessee during the Kentucky campaign of 1862.

Finley served with distinction at Chickamauga and at Missionary Ridge. Promoted to brigadier general on November 16, 1863, he commanded the Florida Infantry in the Army of Tennessee. He led a brigade during the Atlanta campaign, where he was wounded at Resaca and at Jonesboro and was incapacitated for further military duty.

In November and December 1864, he was president of the courts-martial at Knoxville for his department. He held no further office in the Confederacy. From 1865 to 1871, Finley practiced law in Lake City, Florida.

He moved to Jacksonville in 1871. From 1876 to 1879 and in 1881-1882, he served as a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives. He lost a race for governor in 1882 but was elected to the United States Senate in 1887.

The fact that Jesse Finley never had official parole, however, prevented him from ever taking his seat. He was elected a judge of the Florida Fifth Judicial Circuit in 1887 and served until 1903.

Achievements

• Jesse Johnson Finley was known for his political career. He was the Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, a United States Representative from the state of Florida and was briefly a contested United States Senator from Florida.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Speech of Hon. Jesse J. Finley, of Florida, in the United States House of representatives, January 11th, 1877 1877

Politics

Finley was a presidential elector on the Whig Party ticket in 1852. In the United States House of Representatives during the 44th, 45th, and 47th United States Congress he was a member of the Democratic Party.

Connections

Jesse had two sons by his first marriage to Amanda Catherine Yerger. After her death, he married Eliza Holland Lamb in 1839. They had a son and two daughters. After her death in 1845, he married Margaret Harris Martin, by whom he had a son and a daughter.

Father:

Obediah Gaines Finley

1787-1871

Mother:

Mary Lewis Johnson Finley

1791-1830

Brother:

John B. Finley

1820-1868

Brother:

Foster Gaines Finley

1822-1906

late wife:

Amanda Catherine Yerger Finley

1812-1836

late wife:

Eliza Holland Lamb

Wife:

Margaret Harris Martin Finley

1826-1898

Son:

Lucius Finley

1833-1892

Son:

Samuel Yerger Finley

1835-1903

Son:

Charles A. Finley

1849-1934

colleague:

Edmund Kirby-Smith

References

• Civil War High Commands
  2002
• Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders
  2006
• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977